The Present Spanish Subjunctive Rules 5 – As Soon As and When

Posted by Gordon Smith-Duran

Spanish Subjunctive Rules.rulesscale

Here we are in the fifth of the series on making the Present Subjunctive easier.

So, how are you going with it? Are you beginning to understand that it’s much easier to focus on the triggers than it is to wade through the plethora of Spanish subjunctive rules and regulations on why you should be choosing to use it?

 

The important yet fun part.

What’s important for you to grasp from this range of video podcasts is that it isn’t definitive at all. What I mean by that is that what I am showing you in terms of examples is just a basic idea of how the Subjunctive works.

The fun part, and I mean that seriously, (jeje) is taking what you learn from this series and applying it and expanding it.

Of course, there will be  times when you come across examples that simply don’t fit into my explanations. (That’s the fun part) and you will need to use your investigative powers to understand what happened to trigger it off.

When-Future.

In this podast I deal with the sometimes confusing concept of using variations of “when” when you are referring to the future. Look at these two examples:

When I eat, I drink a tea. = Cuando como, bebo un té.

or

When I eat I’ll drink a tea. = Cuando coma, beberé un té/ bebo un té.

Can you see how the first one is referring to every day, repetitive activities, whilst the second is referring to a specific up-and-coming event in the future.

In English we often show that by using the future tense, I’ll, You’ll, He’ll, We’ll, etc.

In Spanish, that isn’t always the case and often they will just use the present tense and so, the reference to the future is identified through their use of the subjunctive.

The future in many words.

There are many ways to refer to future events and not just with the word ‘when’ or ‘cuando’.

There is: en cuanto = once, tan pronto como = as soon as, hasta que = until, a no ser que = unless…

There are lots more.

At some point, I will take all of this information and create some easy and straight forward Helpsheets that will be designed to actually have you feeling more sure AFTER you have worked through them.

I recall the way that I used to feel, (and still do) when I’d finished reading a rather high-brow and erudite explanation of something that really shouldn’t have been so difficult. Sometimes, I used to feel more confused after I’d read it than I was when I started.

I’ll keep you posted on how those helpsheets are going. Let’s see if we can get these Spanish Subjunctive Rules beaten into some kind of understandable shape.

So, enjoy the podcast and I’ll see you in the next one!

 

Hasta pronto, Gordon 🙂

 

 

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:33 — 24.2MB)